


ashes and stardust

by justasuperfan



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Anakin Skywalker Needs a Hug, Canon-Typical Violence, Constellations, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Fluff, Jedi as Found Family (Star Wars), One Shot Collection, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Stargazing, trigger warnings in the notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28864008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justasuperfan/pseuds/justasuperfan
Summary: anakin and his ongoing relationship with the stars
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker & Shmi Skywalker, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	ashes and stardust

**Author's Note:**

> hello all! i wrote something more fluffy this time, with some family bonding, romance, and memories. hope you enjoy!
> 
> TW: implied ptsd, grieving/mourning, mentioned violence, mentioned injury (not really injury but someone passes out)
> 
> stay safe!

There’s not much to do on Tatooine.

It’s a planet of gangsters, smugglers, outlaws. A planet full of people trying to escape a deadly past. Needless to say, there’s not many children there that Anakin hasn’t met. Especially none Anakin’s age.

Didn’t really matter. Even if there were more children his age, they wouldn’t be allowed to play together. Or even talk together. Too much work, too little time spent at home in the first place. Anakin barely saw his other friends as it was, and he wouldn’t be willing to give up his family time just to talk to some new kid. 

But that was the best thing about living with his mom.

Even if there was nothing childish to do, she would make something childish to do. Only, it didn’t _feel_ childish. It felt like relaxation. A dream, almost.

Every night, once the suns set and the work day was over, Anakin’s mom took him out to the roof. The curved rooves were a little hard to lay on, but they made it work. It was an easy climb, too, as long as no one spotted them. A few stragglers were still out and about under the stars, but they didn’t mind. They were used to the noise. It was easy to drown out the drunken shouting when you’d never really lived in silence.

Tatooine wasn’t the nicest planet, but it had the nicest view of the stars.

From the roof, Anakin could see everything. The moons, the constellations, the nearby planets. He’d spent enough nights with his mom to know the names of every star, every ship that happened to pass by.

His mom called the moons triplets. Called one of them Leia, one of them Luke, and one of them Anakin. Whenever Anakin asked why the other two were named that, she explained that she’d always loved the names. She’d always planned on naming a boy Luke and a girl Leia. But of course, Anakin wasn’t planned. She told him how she wanted his name to be unique, like he was.

There wasn’t another kid in the whole galaxy named Anakin.

At least, that’s what his mom said.

She showed him constellations of Jedi. Told him how the line of bright stars were their infamous laser swords, clashing at the brightest star in the sky.

_“Have you ever met a Jedi, Mom?”_

_“Never. But I’ve heard many stories.”_

_“Are they cool?”_

_“Oh, they're very cool, Ani. But also very kind, compassionate. They help whoever they can, even if they don’t like them. They fight to keep the peace and they love everyone they meet.”_

_“Like you!”_

_His mom had laughed. “I am no Jedi, Ani. But we can still be kind and selfless like them.”_

There wasn’t much for a kid to do on Tatooine, never mind an enslaved kid. So Anakin named the stars. He gave a name to the whole galaxy. And every night, he watched his whole world spin around.

»»o««

“See that one, Padmé? Where the stars make a zigzag that looks like a crown? That one’s the queen.” They laid on the soft grass and stared up at the galaxy that stretched above them.

Padmé smiled brightly. “I’m no queen, Ani.”

“You’ll always be a queen to me, love.” Anakin smiled and left a small kiss on his wife’s cheek. Honeymoons, even in secret, were always filled with happiness. He couldn’t believe this gorgeous angel had ever wanted to marry him, but he was so glad she did. He felt lighter, happier. 

He ignored the looming darkness in the Force whenever he thought of how the Council would take the news. How Obi-Wan would take it.

“What’s the name of that star?” Padmé asked, pointing to the brightest one in the sky.

“That,” Anakin wrapped his hand around hers as it pointed skyward, “is Shmi. The brightest, most wonderful star. But she’s part of a bigger constellation, see? Those lines are the lightsabers of the Jedi.”

“Ani...they’re all so beautiful.”

“Like you,” He smiled.

“Says the man who just showed me a whole constellation centered around himself.”

“Hey!” Anakin laughed, nudging Padmé’s arm. “I didn’t know I was a Jedi when I found out the name of that one.”

His wife just laughed. He swore he could see the entire universe reflected in her beautiful eyes. Anakin stood suddenly, dusting off his robes. Padmé leaned on her elbow and stared at him in confusion.

He held out his hand in what was hopefully a gracious request. “Shall we dance, m’lady?”

Padmé giggled, a sound that made his heart melt. She stood and took his hand gently. “We shall.”

Anakin wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist, pulling her just inches from his face. She leaned against his chest as her hands made their way to his shoulders. Padmé took the lead in swaying side to side. It was not a formal dance, that was for sure. But Anakin was a Jedi, and Padmé’s reign was over, and neither of them wanted to make up some elaborate dance when it was just the two of them.

So they just leaned into each other, smiles brighter than any sun. 

And above them, the stars smiled.

»»o««

Ahsoka was lying on the ground. In the middle of what had been a battlefield just moments before. 

Anakin pushed down his concern and made his way over to where she was lying in the dirt. She didn’t seem to have any major injuries, so maybe she had just been stunned or exhausted. Either way, she didn’t really need immediate medical attention. So Anakin lowered himself to the ground next to her, taking a long look at this new view of the stars.

Every planet was different. Different patterns, same stars. But the one that always stayed the same was the brightest star, named after his mother. The Jedi constellation was still made of two lightsaber-wielding peacekeepers, just from a different angle. He had to get creative sometimes, to keep the same names for the same stars.

Beside him, Ahsoka groaned. Anakin put his hands beneath his head as she blinked.

“Ugh...what happened? Why are we on the ground?”

Anakin smiled. “Well, I _think_ you got stunned, so I laid next to you so people would think we were just hanging out. Also, I wanted to watch the sky.”

His padawan nearly scoffed. “I don’t _feel_ hurt, so it must have been a stun.” A pause. A silent thought. “Thanks, Master.”

“No problem.”

Neither of them stood, even though there were no injuries. Anakin wasn’t sure about Ahsoka, but he wasn’t ready to give up his unobstructed view. It seemed to be the only part of the whole planet that wasn’t covered in dust and blasters and violence. Which allowed them a perfect view of the galaxy as he knew it.

“Master...Padmé tells me you’re good at naming the stars.”

A smile grew wide on Anakin’s face. He loved telling people about his interests and hobbies. There hadn’t been many people to tell on Tatooine, not many people who would care. He was always eager to answer a question about his machines, or something he knew more than enough about.

He pointed up at Shmi, the one he always started with. Then worked his way around the Jedi, around the queen, and showed Ahsoka one he knew she would love. The Togruta. The stars made almost a half-circle, cascading down like Ahsoka’s lekku and montrals. 

“Wow,” She breathed. “You really have a constellation for everyone.”

“Yeah.” Anakin laughed. Even in different patterns, and different views, he still recognized his favorites. Tatooine wasn’t far. Maybe that was why it was easy to identify the moons of the sandy planet.

Luke. Leia. Anakin.

And in the middle of it all, Shmi.

»»o««

Starpilots without a battle are useless.

But not Anakin. Not when the weight of the world got to be too much, and he just flew off into the stars with a ship. It’s easy to forget your troubles when you're floating high above any planets, all alone, staring at the very thing you’ve adored your whole life. They were far away, of course, but close enough to admire. 

It was almost becoming a habit to run away whenever things got hard. Whenever they lost another batch of clones, or the memories began to swamp his mind, or someone got hurt _again._ This time, it was the second one.

Anakin knew that Ahsoka didn’t mean it. She’d just brought up Tatooine on accident, after they’d returned from Kadavo. All she meant to do was relate one situation to another, but…

Anakin was a slave. _Had been_ a slave. And that wasn’t an easy thing to forget when it took up most of your childhood memories, making them into an unreadable blur. When he tried to reach back, remember what he used to do for fun, all he could recall was a few faces of young kids, and laying with his mom on the roof. 

The stars.

The queen, the Jedi (Master and Apprentice), the togruta. Shmi, Luke, Leia, _Anakin_. The distant stars that weren’t stars at all, but planets. The constellations he gave names to as a joke, the ones he shared with his friends when nighttime came early. Lights in the sky that made life on a desert planet more tolerable.

Floating above Coruscant, he almost couldn’t recognize any of the old constellations. He was too far from Tatooine. But the stars are always shifting, and Anakin learned to adapt anytime he went to a new planet. The brightest star was still there. Millions of miles away, but there. 

He smiled at it from the safety of his starship, resisting the urge to place a hand against the glass. 

“Mom…”

The star was still there, far away. Anakin swore he felt his mother’s hand on his shoulder as he watched her star. 

“I love you.”

He heard it, a whisper on an imaginary breeze. “I love you too, Ani.”

This time, when he turned around to head back to the Temple, he didn’t look back.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
